Dunes of Time
by Azura Rayume
Summary: After his separation from his latest companion, the Doctor finds himself stuck on a protected desert planet with a few problems of its own. Between poachers, tourists, and corruption in the ranks of the Rangers, this is proving to be one wild adventure.
1. Chapter 1

"I knew this was a bad idea," the Doctor grumbled, running a hand through his hair, dark eyes casting about for some form of life. The only thing that greeted him was mile after mile of whipping wind and sand. "I had Rose. I had Martha. I had Sarah Jane. Hell, I even had a cavewoman all those years ago. I've had my run of troubles in the past, but I always got out of them alright. But now I leave by myself and can't make that blasted thing work like it's supposed to!" He aimed a kick in the direction of the police box sitting a few yards away in frustration.

Men. Women. Children. Half human creatures. Other Timelords. He'd always had a companion in the past, but now he found himself without one. It was this lack of company that seemed to be taking away his edge. He could barely think straight, let alone make that broken TARDIS go anywhere useful. In the past week he'd managed to land himself in the middle of some battle in ancient China, a rather hostile village in a rainforest, and now smack dab in the center of this apparently uninhabited desert world that he couldn't seem to leave.

As he moved toward to the tempermental contraption again, a muffled rumble echoed across the flats. "Oh, what now?" he asked aloud, turning almost reluctantly with eyes closed. Probably just some desert monster out looking for a snack. That's would be a perfect way to end this horrible week; maybe the beast might even scare the TARDIS into working almost properly again.

He opened his eyes as the noise drew closer and was surprised to find some sort of vehicle thundering across the sands, wide tires kicking up a thick plume of dust in its wake. The pilot of the thing seemed to have seen him for it altered its original course, eventually coming to a stop a few meters away.

The Doctor stepped forward, raising a hand in a friendly wave. "Hello!" he said, almost as chipper as normal. No responce. "Helloo?"

The cockpit of the vehicle opened with a hiss of cool air meeting hot. A young woman whose age he could only guess stepped out, booted feet landing lightly on the desert floor. She was dressed simply, tan shorts and buttoned polo, auburn hair tied back in a ponytail that reached her shoulders. In her hands, however, was not what the Doctor had been hoping to find: a blaster aimed for his chest.

"Who are you?" she barked with all the authority of a military official. "What are you doing on Cragis Twelve?" He simply gawked at her for a moment, not quite sure how to respond. She stepped closer, weapon nearly pressing on him. "I asked you what you're doing here," she growled.

"Right, right," he said quickly, taking a step back. "Well, I'm not quite sure really. You see, I was just passing through and-" He was cut short by the muzzle of the gun pushed hard against his breastbone.

"No one simply passes through the Cragis system," the woman snarled. "They come to either visit the sanctuary or poach the wildlife. Considering the fact that you're not exacty in one of the visitor designated sectors, you can guess what I think you're doing."

"My ship malfunctioned!" he said quickly, gesturing to the large blue box in the sands. "It does this sort of thing, landing on planets I don't want it to. This one- what did you call it? Cragis?- just happened to be the one it picked."

The expression on the stranger's face didn't change, lips pressed into a hard line that refused to budge, but there was a shimmer of doubt in her eyes, and the muscles of her arm relaxed ever so slightly.

"Of course," she muttered sardonically, green eyes not leaving him for a moment. "Your ship just happens to land on a heavily protected Ranger planet. You really expect me to believe that?"

Oh, why was everything being so difficult today? "Yes. That's exactly what I'd like you to believe because _that's what happened._ The thing's been broken ever since I got it. Why do you think it's a big blue box instead of a rock or something?"

Now she just stared at him in apparent diebelief. "Are you alright?" she asked, her tone switching from hostility to genuine concern. In her mind, he must seem like a complete lunatic. He batted at the hand she moved toward his face, scowling slightly.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine," he said irritably while marveling at how much their responces to each other had changed so quickly. "But what about you, waving that thing in my face, then acting all concered about me? A second ago, you were all gung-ho about shooting me!"

The woman frowned slightly as if she were attempting to come up with something to say back to him. "Well," she muttered defensively, "I _was_ just doing my job, keeping people who aren't supposed to be here out. That is, until I thought there was something seriously wrong with you."

"Wrong with... me..? What? Why?" The Doctor failed to understand that part. As far as he was concerned, everything he had said made perfect sense, right down to the malfunction of his TARDIS's chameleon switch. He was still trying to reason through this Ranger thing she mentioned, but he supposed he had never heard of that group before because he hadn't been here in his life yet.

"Yes, wrong with you," she repeted, beginning to sound a bit annoyed again. "Look, I should get you back to base before you go wandering off into the desert again. I may know what's out there, but if you're as lost as you say, there's no way you'd make it much longer. I can tow your... ship... thing... whatever... back with us if you like."

The Doctor shot her an absolutely appauled look. "Tow it?" he asked, clearly unsure of how she meant to go about such a procedure. "The thing's more than a little delicate, and, as I said, broken already. I don't want you messing it up any worse than it already is by dragging it over the dunes out here." He turned back to stare at the blue shape and sighed. Broken or not, he loved that old bucket of bolts almost as much as his own skin sometimes, and he was not about to let anything unnecessary happen to it. Still, it had insisted on not cooperating and even had the nerve to lock him out, so towing it might be the only way to get it out of here whether he liked it or not.

By the time he turned around again, the woman was already in the process of preparing to move the TARDIS, using a method much more advanced than a couple of cables hooked to the outside of what needed hauling. What appeared to be a sled had been unfolded from a compartment just behind the cockpit and was suspended a few inches above the sand by a simplistic hover field. He was plesantly surprised by this, smiling slightly to himself at the unexpected development. _Well,_ he thought,_ maybe this won't be so bad after all._

A thought struck him. "I just remembered something. I never caught your name." He smiled as he spoke, moving to lean on the hull of her vehicle that was now beginning to impress him a bit more than he had expected.

"Reanna," she said idly, fiddling with the controls for the hoversled. "You should get in the back seat. I'll be readly for your... er... ship in a minute here."


	2. Chapter 2

The vehicle roared over the sand dunes much faster than the Doctor had been expecting. Rianna evidently found his surprised expression and death grip on the back of her chair amusing since she grinned the entire trip. The speed, coupled with the uneven terrain, made him feel queazy. "You're telling me you do this every day?" he asked, leaning forward to press his forehead against the seat in front of him.

"Of course," she replied, her smirk growing. "Why do you ask?"

"I think I'm gonna be sick..." His voice trailed off as if speaking was becoming too much to do besides concentrate on not doing just that. He closed his eyes as if that alone was enough to help his current situation. He felt stupid; just imagine him, the last of the Time Lords, getting motion sick over some sand. Rianna's bright laugh from in front of him didn't boost his morale any either.

Through her chuckles she managed to say, "Just hold on for a bit more. We're almost there," before decending into fits of giggles again. The Doctor wondered why women were so fond of laughing at him when something didn't go quite as he had planned. Almost all of his female companions had done so, and he had been puzzled by it every time.

_No matter,_ he thought, trying to turn his mind back to getting off this planet as soon as possible. _I just hope she's right._

And she was. In only a few minutes, the engine's roar subsided to a low growl as the pilot eased back on the trottle. The machine slowed to a crawl, a much welcome change in pace as far as the Doctor was concerned. He would have rather the trip taken twice as long and been at as similar speed to this in comparison to the ordeal he had just endured. He looked up, dark gaze casting about to find out where exactly she had taken him.

"Where exactly" proved to be a small complex of dust coated buildings surrounded by fencing and more dunes. He assumed this must have been what she had meant earlier by "designated sector" as here seemed more equipped for people of any sort than where he had landed. "This is your headquarters then?" he asked a bit tenatively. He could be wrong, and she had toted him off to some kind of prison after all.

"Yeah," she said, much to his relief. "It's not much, but it's home." She sounded proud of the meager establishments. He understood though; it took a lot of courage for anyone to build any sort of building on a planet like this.

Dozens of people swarmed around her transport the moment it passed through the gates, cameras directed at them both. He noted a good many of them diverting their attention to his TARDIS, and he tried ignoring them. As long as they didn't touch anything... Rianna grimaced at the attention as well. Apparently there was a reason her job was pointing guns at people instead of ushering tourists around.

The vehicle stopped at last. "You can get out if you want," Rianna said as she turned around to look at the Doctor. "Don't worry about the tourists. They usually clear out after you stop looking interesting and they've had their fill of photos."

"And you'll be going where?"

"Taking your ship to the garage. Gonna see if any of the guys down there can fix it."

The Doctor felt his stomach knot at the idea of some greasemonkey toying with the insides of the TARDIS. "I don't think they'll be able to do much," he said quickly, utterly failing to cover his concern for his ship. "All that I really need now is for the door to unlock, and it doesn't seem to keen on doing that right now."

If the thought of his ship being intelligent had come up, it obviously didn't warrent a reaction in her mind. "Well, maybe they can coax it into cooperating then." She shot him a confident smile. "Go on now. Enjoy yourself. It may not seem it, but there's a lot to see here. Besides sand, I mean." The cockpit hatch swung up and open with the same hiss as before, and she gestured for him to leave.

He stood, trying his best to return the smile only to have a fake expression plastered on his face, and stepped out. He still hated the idea of someone other than himself poking around the TARDIS, but he supposed it couldn't be helped. "Just don't let them break anything, alright."

"Would you quit worrying and go?"

"Fine, fine." The hatch closed again, cutting off any further conversation. The engine revved back to life as the transport began to crawl away, towing his TARDIS along with it.


End file.
